PRE or POST-PERFORMANCE
ACTIVITIES
Pre\post-performance questions for the classroom.
Find Appalachia on a map of the United States.
What is the land like (mountains, flat, lakes)?
Are there any big cities?
What kinds of jobs might people do there?
What is the weather like in Appalachia?
What kinds of animals might live there?
What would it have been like to have settled this land?
What kinds of stories might people tell about this land?
Cartoon and television shows often depict a character of a 'mountain man' or hillbilly.'
What is he like?
Do cartoons and TV always show a real version of people or events?
Does television portray people realistically?
Why or why not?
Play the "Gossip Game." Someone start a one sentence story whisper it from one
student to another until it has gone full circle. This simulates passing
stories from generation to generation as in the oral tradition. Most of the
time, the story will change. Go back through the line of students and find the
places where the story changed. Why did it change? Sometimes the story
doesn't change. Why?
Could this be how stories were passed from person to person over the years?
Read either out loud in class or at home folk tales from various cultures.
Do the stories you have read from different cultures show any similarities?
